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If you own a $400,000 house, how much to make per yr?

I know this is a personal question and personal decision, but we are considering a house that will end up being between $375-400,000 (depending on upgrades). I am kind of nervous because our current home was only $150,000 so we have had a lot of money left over each month. If you own a house in this price range how much do you make per yr? i just want to know what others did, and I can't ask friend or family members! Thanks!

Re: If you own a $400,000 house, how much to make per yr?

Did you check out a mortgage calculator and see what your payments would be? That would be more helpful to you. No matter what somebody makes, everyone has different savings goals, lifestyles, other monthly obligations, varrying number of children, etc. Somebody might make 250K a year and it might be difficult to cover that mortage because they have high student loans, children they are saving for college for, more expensive cars, aggressive retirement plans. Another person might make half that and it's no problem because they don't have kids, don't have debt, don't travel, etc.

The only way to determine if that is affordable to you is to look at the payment, your own monthly expenses, savings goals, lifestyle preference and see if it works for you. Some information you might find valuable is to ask others square footage and what sort of montly housing expenses are associated with a larger house (assuming the home is large, in my neck of the woods 400K buys a townhome and not a large single family).

I agree w/pp about using a mortgage calculator. There are many recommendations, but most say that your mortgage shouldn't be more than 31% of your take home pay. Even at 31%, you may be stretching it, which is why I have heard others say to keep it under 25%. Also, you have to consider you entire debt to income ratio including sl's, cc debt, or anything else you may have.

Your downpayment will also affect how much your monthly payment will be.

you also have to take into account how much other spending and debt goes on. you can afford a 400,000 house on a lower income if you don't have lots of other debts or payments. If you have car payments, student loans, more misc, then you'd need more income to buy the same house comfortably.

We have a $325K mortgage (house was more than $400 but I figure with 20% down our mortgages will be about the same). The mortgage is very do-able on $80K-100K in my opinion (that is not our salary) BUT the bit question is how much the taxes and insurance are. Our taxes/insurance only run us $370 a month. My friends house in Jersey has a tax bill of over $1,000 a month. We could NEVER afford that.

In general your mortage, tax and insurance payment should be about 30% of your take-home unless your take-home is VERY high. Like over $10K month. Then you have more wiggle room.

general rule of thumb is mortgage is 2.5 times your annual income. TOTAL housing expenses (mortgage, PMI, taxes and insurance as well as utilites and maintenance should not be more than 31% of your income.

How much you will qualify for will not only depend on your income, but your debt to income ration (cars, student loans, and mortgage).

It sounds like you do not have a clear picture of your financial situation. Track your spending for the next month or two - every dollar and you will have a better picture of what your life will be like when you add a larger mortgage payment.

remember that your taxes will be much higher on this home as well. If it is larger, so will your utility bills increase.

Just be careful with the whole % ratios etc. ?On my income the calculator says I can afford a 180k house. ?I am in a low cost of living area, and I can tell you, heck no can I afford 180k house. ?I have no debt, and I tell you, I couldn't do it. ?Best way to figure out what you can afford, is to make a budget. ?Pretend you are paying for that mortgage and see how comfortable you are after a couple months.